After the success of last year’s “Music Lab” we’ve decided to expand the number of acts and shift up to a larger venue, The Railway. The aim of the concert is to present a diverse group of artists experimenting in areas ranging from field recording, noise, electro-acoustic and synthesis.

As part of the entry cost, a accompanying CD will be issued featuring new or previously unreleased work from the artists. This will also be available to those who are unable to attend the concert and will be posted out shortly after.

All of the artists have released work on notable labels including Hibernate, Denovali, Somehow Recordings as well as Runningonair. It will be possible to purchase some of these at the concert saving postage costs, as well as allowing more of the money to go directly to the artists.

The Artists

Petrels

Petrels is London-based musician Oliver Barrett (Bleeding Heart Narrative/Grapefruits). Debut album 'Haeligewielle' was released on Tartaruga Records in April, combining bowed strings, discarded electronics, sporadic percussion and occasional vocals; "frighteningly claustrophobic but exultant in a beautifully understated way... monstrous arvo part-isms and peter wright destructo-drones. and with similar tropes can come across like richard skelton on steroids." (cowsarejustfood).

Isnaj Dui

Katie English, aka Isnaj Dui, explores electroacoustic neo-impressionism using flutes, home-made dulcimers and electronics. She has released several critically acclaimed albums, performed at venues such as the National Portrait Gallery and Union Chapel and has collaborated live and on record with numerous artists from electronica acts to folk bands.

Grohs

A sound manipulist - taking basic building blocks of sound and warping them into wild structures. Fragments of moments become sonic swathes stretching into the distance. Recorded works tend toward the ambient end of the spectrum, live shows can range from glistening soundscapes to full on noisefear...co-founder of the electronic and minimal orchestral outfit Regolith - "cerebral otherworldly weirdness" .

Pascal Savy

Pascal Savy is a French electronic music composer who lives and works in London (UK). He creates organic ambient and drone music, as a way to reflect on beauty, erosion and decay. His work combines acoustic sources with electronic tones generated by analogue and FM synthesisers.

Joe Evans

Joe Evans is a Winchester based composer, performer and curator of Runningonair Music. His music often uses mathematics to determine a framework. His latest release Ecliptic Plane uses statistics from the motion of the planets to create the harmony, rhythm and form of the pieces.

Daniel W J Mackenzie is perhaps best known for his work as Ekca Liena, a droning guitar and electronic mesh of ambience, electronica and hints of doom. This alias has carved it’s place in the UK ambient underground. In addition, Daniel also records and performs with psychedelic drone outfit Plurals. Under his real name Daniel explores styles that are more intimate - his well received debut self-release Teeth Sleep Under Winking Black Eyelid is a melancholic and cinematic close focus study of the humble piano - and, in this case, rather more calculated conceptual works.

The core of Return Written Arrange uses input from a variety of musicians who were asked to provide sound recordings of their choice from a selection of musical pitches and durations of Mackenzie's own design. These were arranged in the order of when they were sent back and the resulting sequence was duplicated in a way that corresponded with the Fibonacci sequence, subjected to minimal production and compositional enhancements and left as semi-aleatoric pieces, as much constructed by chance and choice as they are bound by the rigidity of the sequence.

Surrounding the two main conceptual pieces (Return Written Arrange i and ii) are a series of shorter tracks intended to provide much more human counterparts. These feature the kind of sombre improvised piano that runs through Teeth Sleep... tinkering amid atmospheres drawn from the other tracks and words from Irish poet P. Scanlan. Together the different elements form a mysterious, enchanted and possibly unsettling release that speaks as much for the soul's significance in musical composition as it does the mind's.

Firstly thanks to all those who have bought a copy. Interest has been good on this release.

Loop.cl have just completed an interview with Guy. It provides an useful insight into his current research and helps to explain how “Symmetry-Breaking” has ended up being the unusual and interesting work it is.

This has been a great project to work on. The unusual release format has certainly caused some difficulties but I can’t help feeling it’s really been worth while, as feedback from those that have already heard it has been very positive.

The Music:Guy’s work first came to my attention about a year ago. I was immediately struck by the way in which Guy’swork could both be seen as a pure sound experiment but also remain inherently musical.Guy’s background in science contributes largely to his sound, using mathematical analysis and granular synthesisto render his work from a combination of found sounds and instrumental sources. When it comes to the purelymusical, his choice of harmony focuses on the search for beauty but is often full of questions and ambiguity, thesweet with hints of the bitter. The results are a collection of intriguing pieces and shifting soundscapes thatexplore the full range of the audio spectrum.

The Release:Due to the unusual way the work is realised, some of the pieces can never be rendered twice in exactly the sameway. In order to demonstrate this result, one hundred and one (101) versions of the album will be issued. Onthis release, disc one is the general release, numbered V000 and limited to 100 physical copies. V000 will also bemade available as a download. Disc two is a one off unique special edition of the album, numbered V001 toV100. Each of these versions has three tracks rendered specifically for that disc only and these tracks are notavailable as a download. The two discs are combined as a double CD release.

The CD-R release is made using recycled card covers and quality “Aquaguard” matt finish CD-Rs.

I can't say I see much difference between the two. Longevity is probably my biggest concern but otherwise they're pretty much the same. I recently had a CDR turn up which had been lacquered on the front and you could see the finger prints under the lacquer. A very personal touch I thought.

It's something I'd like to look into but I can imagine they take while to print so could slow production down if you were doing a large batch job. Not sure about longevity but CDRs don't last long apparently.

I've generally used "Aquaguard" disks. I really like the matt paper like quality you get. It works really well with cardboard sleeves.

Sadly, due to lack of time, I unable to interact more generally, which is why I try to keep it all in the same place.

Also I try to keep it in the appropriate place i.e. "other artists and labels".

Spam? Well I'm sorry you think that. If I was trying to sell fake viagra I'd be forced to agree but all I'm trying to do is let people know about what I'm up to with very limited resourses avaiable to me.

So far I've only listened to "Brittle". Apparently recorded with acoustic instruments but you wouldn't be able to tell because they've all been filtered to near sine waves. There appears to be no form, just one long piece, no change of pace, no change of harmonic language. It just drifts on. Is that a bad thing? well maybe not but it's not really doing much for me at the moment.

I'm not going to make a value judgment on their work based on just one piece. If anyone has some links to a few net releases I'd be happy to give them another go.

Well it’s all pretty much in the title, most of this work is over a decade old and was never meant to appear on an album, at least not in this format. Having said that, it works remarkably well. For those that are familiar with the “Out of Process” release, this can be seen a prequel, but divided into darker and lighter material, hence the split over 2 disks.

The second disk will not be released as a download, so this will be a genuinely limited release.

There’s more information at the website as well as clips and downloads.

Additionally the track “Running on Air” will be available for free download for the first week of the release! (1st Dec – 7th Dec). “Second Thoughts” is already available.

December Sale

As everyone is on the look out for cheap presents and I need to clear a bit of space, there will be a 50% off sale on all older disk releases (RM001 – 3).

That’s got be worth a punt for anyone hovering on the edge. I’ll also combine postage.

Just send me an e-mail for a quote.

Info –at- runningonair –dot- com

Next year – Releases

At present there are a couple of new releases scheduled. Both of which will be landmarks in there own way. Firstly there will be a Blue Ray release, I can’t go into specifics at this stage, but it has to Blue Ray to make it work. The release date is likely to be October.

The next actual release, pencilled in for March, will be Runningonair Music’s first new solo artist, Guy Birkin. Guy has some amazing ideas and I can promise that the planned release is going to something unique. Enough for now.